Star-Telegram: Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez wants an Ellis County court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging her 717-vote primary runoff win for the 6th Congressional District over Ruby Woolridge. She filed court records saying the lawsuit filed by Woolridge — which alleges Sanchez … Continue reading
Category Archives: chicanery
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The chairman of the Missouri House committee that investigated former Gov. Eric Greitens sent out a scathing letter Monday calling Greitens’ dark-money group a “criminal enterprise” and saying that if Greitens had not resigned, the committee would … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM: Former Trump voter fraud commissioner J. Christian Adams was in a federal court in Virginia Friday to defend reports his group released in 2016 and 2017 alleging that thousands of non-citizens were illegally registered to vote … Continue reading
WaPo: During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with … Continue reading
Bob in the Altantic: The law governing the activity of charitable organizations can be complex, but on the question of whether 501(c)(3) charities can engage in political activity, it could not be more straightforward. They cannot. The IRS enforces an … Continue reading
News and Observer: One of the most popular days for early voting would be eliminated under a proposal that supporters say is meant to bring uniformity to the 100 North Carolina counties’ one-stop voting schedules. Rep. David Lewis, a chief … Continue reading
Gerry Cohen oped for the News and Observer: There are important questions to be resolved before the legislature votes to put voter photo identification in the state Constitution via referendum. The ballot question says, “Every person offering to vote in … Continue reading
McClatchy reports: Several prominent Russians, some in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or high in the Russian Orthodox Church, now have been identified as having contact with National Rifle Association officials during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, according to photographs and … Continue reading
Topeka Capital-Journal: Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said three weeks ago Kobach had paid the penalty “out of his own pocket.” However, a Kansas Open Records Act request of the Kansas Department of Administration produced records … Continue reading
KC Star: The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a citizen grand jury can proceed with an investigation of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in Douglas County. Steven Davis, a Democratic candidate for the Kansas House, first filed a … Continue reading
KC Star: The Missouri House has dropped its effort to enforce a subpoena demanding documents from former Gov. Eric Greitens’ secretive dark money nonprofit. Lawmakers had asked Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem to force Greitens’ nonprofit, called A … Continue reading
Politico: A top former FBI official accused President Donald Trump of acting out of spite against federal law enforcement after the president suggested Thursday he might commute former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison term. Robert Grant, a longtime colleague … Continue reading
NLJ: President Donald Trump’s campaign lawyers at Jones Day pushed back Thursday against a nonprofit group’s pursuit of documents related to the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee, assailing the request as a “last-ditch effort to launch a fishing expedition into … Continue reading
Rod Blagojevich WSJ oped. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Breitbart News landed an election scoop that went viral in August 2016: “Exclusive: ‘Black Men for Bernie’ Founder to End Democrat ‘Political Slavery’ of Minority Voters… by Campaigning for Trump.” If the splashy, counterintuitive story, which circulated on such conservative websites as Truthfeed … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: The Federal Election Commission deadlocked over whether to investigate a $500,000 contribution to a super political action committee that backed Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) presidential bid. Watchdog groups contend the 2016 donation was illegally funneled through a limited liability … Continue reading
WSJ: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have obtained a presentation prepared by an Israel-based private intelligence firm that outlines ways in which Donald Trump’s 2016 election was helped by fake news and fake social-media accounts, according to people familiar with … Continue reading
USA Today: In the months after Donald Trump rode to victory while calling for mass deportations, Russian operatives bought dozens of Facebook ads targeted at the Hispanic community seeking to further inflame tensions already roiled by the campaign’s racially charged rhetoric, according … Continue reading
Oh my: In a recent interview with HuffPost, Giuliani initially disputed the notion that Trump’s daily citing, in the final month of his campaign, of Russian-aligned WikiLeaks and its release of Russian-stolen emails constituted “colluding” with Russia. “It is not,” Giuliani … Continue reading
TPM: An appeals court dismissed Tuesday a request by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to overturn a federal judge’s finding that he was in contempt of court. The three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said … Continue reading
NYT: Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy … Continue reading
Miles Parks for NPR: When a WWE wrestler, especially one known for his demonic antics and a move calledthe “tombstone piledriver,” runs for mayor of your county, you know your election is going to get more attention than usual. But in Knox County, … Continue reading
Politico: Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday endorsed the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help President Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. It’s a powerful bipartisan endorsement … Continue reading
Union-Leader: Gov. Chris Sununu is preparing to ask the state Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on a controversial new election law, but the court has dodged such questions in the recent past. The governor announced on Tuesday that he … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: A Mexican citizen accused of voting in three different elections in Texas has been indicted on two counts of election fraud linked to the November 2016 presidential election. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to prosecute the case, … Continue reading
It‘s not just the Federalist Society. Turns out that the group with big, dark money supporting the nomination of Justice Gorsuch and blocking Judge Garland was vehicle for giving large, unreported donation to Trump inaugural committee. Read the thread: Got … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: For the second time, GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel’s office has concluded there is no evidence a Democratic activist broke voting laws in the run-up to the 2016 election. Schimel’s office first made that determination in January 2017, … Continue reading
USA Today: The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social media advertising on what is arguably America’s rawest political division: race. The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads … Continue reading
NYT: Russia was preparing to undermine confidence in the United States’ voting process when its hackers surveilled around 20 state election systems in the run-up to the 2016 elections, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a brief report released on Tuesday. … Continue reading
NYT: A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before … Continue reading
Orlando Sentinel: State and local investigators said they used fingerprints and DNA from saliva found on five mail-in ballots to track down a Casselberry man and charge him with voter fraud. Bret Warren, 36, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Seminole County Jail … Continue reading
Charlie Savage and Ken Vogel for the NYT. … Continue reading
Sam Levine for HuffPo: Officials in Knox County, Tennessee, are trying to gather more information about a cyberattack that crashed a government website that displayed election results to the public during its primary election for local offices on Tuesday. Dick Moran, … Continue reading
First it was Wyoming, now Louisiana: With calls for his resignation increasing, Louisiana’s secretary of state announced Tuesday that he is leaving his position as state elections chief amid allegations he sexually harassed one of his employees. Secretary of State … Continue reading
Daily Beast: The former Green Party candidate in a congressional race has been exposed as a Republican plant with ties to the GOP congressman he supposedly sought to challenge Michael Zak petitioned to run under the Green Party ticket in … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
IndyStar: Three Indiana members of Congress gave and received money from Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci in what experts said may have been an improper straw donor scheme — including two Indiana congressmen running for the U.S. Senate. The Senate candidates, Reps. … Continue reading
NYT: The House Intelligence Committee released on Friday a roughly 250-page report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, laying out Republicans’ conclusion after a yearlong investigation that they had found no evidence that the Trump campaign aided Moscow’s efforts. [Read … Continue reading
WaPo: The Senate Ethics Committee said Thursday that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who avoided conviction in a federal corruption trial last year, violated federal law and Senate rules in accepting unreported gifts from a friend and political ally whom Menendez … Continue reading
WRAL: A legal team for the state Democratic Party deposed the North Carolina Republican Party’s executive director for at least 90 minutes Monday morning. Dallas Woodhouse said he answered some questions “out of respect to the courts,” declined to answer … Continue reading
Weigel: The chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday defended a new multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, with talk show hosts asking whether it was distracting from efforts to rebuild the Democratic Party. “I don’t … Continue reading
NYT: The Democratic National Committee opened a new legal assault on President Trump on Friday by filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the organization was the victim of a conspiracy by Russian officials, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks … Continue reading
Must-read Ciara Torres-Spelliscy: Ultimately, an entity with subpoena power can resolve the mystery of whether any substantial money from Russia was funneled through the NRA in 2016. That will require more than polite inquiries from the Senator from Oregon. It … Continue reading
If this doesn’t scare the hell out of you about the next election season, you are not paying attention. … Continue reading
AP: Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has demanded that Rep. Todd Rokita take down yard signs it says give the false impression the president endorsed the Indiana Republican’s Senate bid, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told The Associated … Continue reading
Wired: WHEN YOUNG MIE Kim began studying political ads on Facebook in August of 2016—while Hillary Clinton was still leading the polls— few people had ever heard of the Russian propaganda group, Internet Research Agency. Not even Facebook itself understood how the group was … Continue reading
AP: Senate candidate Todd Rokita likely violated ethics laws as Indiana’s secretary of state by repeatedly accessing a Republican donor database from his government office, prompting party officials to lock him out of the system until he angrily complained, three … Continue reading
Journal-Sentinel: Attorney General Brad Schimel this week suggested Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 because the state had its voter ID law in place. His comments drew a rebuke from liberals, who said they saw it as an admission by … Continue reading
Tamara Keith for NPR. … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading